Data Processing In A Hybrid Computing Environment

Abstract

Data processing in a hybrid computing environment that includes a host computer having a host computer architecture; an accelerator having an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions; the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module; and a host application process executing on the host computer. Data processing such a hybrid computing environment includes starting, at the behest of the host application process, a thread of execution on the accelerator; returning, by the system level message passing module to the host application process, a process identifier (‘PID’) for the thread of execution; and managing, by the host application process, the thread of execution on the accelerator as though the thread of execution were a thread of execution on the host computer.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for data processing in a hybrid computing environment.[0003]2. Description Of Related Art[0004]The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input / output (‘I / O’) devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular descriptions of exemplary embodi...

Problems solved by technology

Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices.

Although hybrid computing environments are more computationally powerful and efficient in data processing than many non-hybrid computing environments, such hybrid computing environments still present substantial challenges to the science of automated computing machinery.

Images